Of gifts and talents: What is your position?

Submitted by Joan_Ernandez on Jan 28, 2014 09:23 am

Reflect on the statments below and state your position on gifts and talents. How are they different, if you believe them to be different, and how can we define the population? How many Jamaicans are in a similar position as these famous persons before their gifts were unearthed?

Her family suggested Louisa May Alcott should find work as a servant or a seamstress. An editor told her she could never write anything with popular appeal.
Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a composer.
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of good ideas.
Thomas Edison's teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything.
Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams." He was expelled and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies, 15th out of 22 in chemistry.
Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.

Comments (3)

Nature and Nurture we have to identify gifts and foster talents

Audi27

Tue, 2014-01-28 19:25

Would one say Ussain Bolt has a gift or talent? He may have been predisposed to be good at running, however, if not for the environmental context or the opportunies we may not have seen these talents develop. I beleive gift and talents to be the same. Talent suggest a propensity/ aptitude towards a skill. A gift suggest, an ability that can not be attributed to unnatural causes and such skills apear to be innate. The difference in the two words may refers to the level of effort exhibited by the individual. Thinking about Bolt and the many examples throughout history. I believe everyone has a "gift", the size of that "gift is determined by its value to self and others, society". If the right environmental variables are not in place. that gift may not develop. If everyone has a gift, should we spend more time trying to identify the "gifts" in our children? Once we know there gifts, we need to create the environement develop it.

Einstein teacher saw him as mentally slow, Beethoven was considered hopeless by his teacher. It says to me that sometimes the best innovation and creation is not neccessarily from the "brightest" of the bunch. I think we need to inspire creativity and expose our children as much as possible to different activities and situations, get them thinking about their environment and maybe we will see more manifestations of talents.

I recently read a magazine article that identified 20 Black Child Prodigies in the world. I was impressed with 16 year old, Kelvin Doe from Sierra Leone who "built his own battery using acid, soda and metal parts scavenged from trash bins that he now uses to light up area homes". Now Sierra Leone according to the article"has power lines, but they seldom deliver electricity". This is an example where aptitude and interest~ "gifts" meet environment.

How can we create a learning culture where our children are actively thinking about the environment they live in and how do we as parents and educators identify and stimulate these interest so that the gifts/ talents develop.

Food for thought:Quote by Eric Hoffer

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire create not only its own opportunities but its own talents.

20 Black Child Prodigies article

http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/09/24/15-black-child-proteges-mainstrea...

I do believe individuals have

keithaosborne

Wed, 2014-01-29 01:26

I do believe individuals have above average intellectual/ abilities in one or more domains. Some of these individual might have average or have difficulties in other areas in life. Based on the individuals given in the illustration above there is also a thin line between being a genius and being concerned different. It because those individuals think out of the box and view/act differently. Your start in life... (delay etc.) does not define you.